Land Use

Perhaps there is nothing more frustrating than working with the government on land use matters.

What used to take a matter of weeks 25 years ago can now take several years to complete. In the “good old days” you could go to one counter, work with one government official in most instances, and complete your project without too much expense, difficulty or time. Now, each land use application goes through multiple departments, involving multiple players, often requiring multiple permits or sign offs. The entire process can be frustrating to say the least.

At RP we understand these challenges. We like to think of ourselves as “grease monkeys,” which is to say that we provide the grease to help the squeaky wheel of government work for you. Sometimes our involvement is limited to a phone call or two to selected government employees. Other times we take a more active role, meeting with our client and government officials to try to work out a difficult site issue. Sometimes we are hired from the very beginning of the project to help with applications for shoreline permits, building permits, environmental impact statements, and a host of other permits or sign offs. Finally, on occasion, we are hired to actually litigate land use matters. We are well versed in LUPA and other types of administrative hearings concerning land use matters.

Whatever level of assistance you need in helping get your project permitted and ready to go, we at RP stand ready, willing and able to help.

What makes our firm unique is that not only do we have attorneys with decades of experience in helping property owners with their land use projects and disputes, but we have one of our attorneys who has been “on the other side of the table.” Troy Romero is a former two term mayor of the city of Sammamish. Troy helped negotiate and work on a number of land use projects from the government’s point of view, and has a unique perspective on things. More importantly, through that experience he gained invaluable contacts in various cities and counties throughout Western Washington. He can call on these contacts to assist his clients as the circumstances warrant.

In the end, land use is about working closely with government officials to get a project to fruition. RP is committed to helping you get there.